I took the Tube from Liverpool Street Station to Southfields, the closest Tube station to the All England Lawn Tennis Club, the venue of the tournament. I had to walk for about 20 minutes to my gate (there were several gates as the entry point, and a spectator was assigned to a specific gate based on his/her ticket), which was quite a nice walk in one of London’s posh neighbourhoods 😛 .

The neighbourhood of Wimbledon

The gate was finally opened at 10:30 AM. The multiple gates system was quite good in my opinion where the queue in each gate was not terribly long. I was handed my official ticket at the gate and then got the thorough security check before I was admitted to the ground. And there I was, feeling very excited that I was back in Wimbledon again this year!! Even more excited because I was finally going to watch a Venus Williams’ official singles match for the first time ever; and it happened to be a Wimbledon final match!! 😍

Venus’ match would not start before 2 PM so I had plenty of time before that. So obviously I went around Wimbledon’s beautiful venue, and planned on taking a selfie at Henman Hill with the Wimbledon 2017 flowers arrangement. While doing so, a BBC live camera was apparently shooting the Henman Hill and so me selfie-ing got broadcasted on live TV, lol 😱 .

Selfie-ing at Henman Hill!

After going around for a few rounds, I started to get hungry so I decided to get my favorite dish from two years ago: the southern fried chicken that was only sold at one stall in the whole venue: in the Aorangi food area underneath Court No.1 😛 . This time, though, the chicken was a little bit too overcooked and the chips was too much to me that I could not finish it, haha 😛 . But of course, after that I still had my scoop of strawberry and cream. You know, a trip to Wimbledon is NEVER complete without one!

Southern fried chicken

Because a trip to Wimbledon is NEVER complete without a bowl of strawberry and cream

The weather was not perfect today, where thick cloud was hanging throughout the day and occassional showers fell. So I went underneath the Centre Court, where (finally!) they had put some boards listing the past winners of the championships. As for the (recent) ladies’ singles, here is the partial list:

The list of the ladies’ singles champions

Yep, as you can see, a certain surname is indeed dominating the list since the year 2000! Haha . Yep, Venus Wiliams and Serena Williams had won twelve Wimbledon singles titles for the seventeen years between 2000 and 2016. The other five were won by Petra Kvitova (twice), Marion Bartoli, Amelie Mauresmo, and Maria Sharapova.

Anyway, I decided to enter the Centre Court not long after, as I got quite tired from walking anyway, haha 😆 . But since it was still about 45 minutes before the match would start, I decided to go closer to the court first to take my picture taken 😛 .

Back at Wimbledon Centre Court this year.

Then, I went back to my seat, rested my legs a little bit and charged my camera’s battery while there was still time, haha 😆 . Just before 2 PM, the match preparation started with the ballkids entering the court, followed by the line-judges. At 2 PM, both finalists, Venus Williams and Garbine Muguruza entered the court. At this time, I felt a little bit emotional seeing Venus Williams walking there, still fighting hard for grandslam singles titles, even at the age of 37, while battling an incurable auto-immune disease! To me, she is a total inspiration.

Muguruza won the coin toss and elected to receive, meaning Venus would serve first. The two players warmed up, and then the match started. The match started really competitively and was immediately at a really high level. The match’s first shot was even Venus’ big serve to the T that became an ace.

Venus Williams started the match with an ace

The two players really went toe to toe and so the match was really, really exciting at this point. Muguruza, especially, played really well in my opinion where I felt like she read Venus’ serves really well today. Nonetheless, the match finally reached the score 4*-5 (15-40) on Muguruza’s serve, meaning Venus had two set points, or opportunities, to win the first set. At this time, both players hit amazing shot after shot after shot, producing a long rally in the teens, which ended with Venus’ forehand error that hit the net. And from my observation, this became the turning point of the match.

Garbine Muguruza was reading Venus’ serves well today.

For whatever reason, it appeared to me that Venus dwelled on this point too much, thus affecting her mind state. Since then, she appeared to rapidly lose her timing and focus, and started to hit more and more unforced errors. Muguruza did well where she kept her composure and focus. It was not that Venus did not try. It was obvious that she tried hard; but she just could not string several good points together. As a result? Well, Muguruza won nine straight games since that turning point, closing the match in only 73 minutes and won 7–5, 6–0.

Garbine Muguruza won her second grandslam title.

Venus, being a champion that she is, was being grace in defeat. It was clear that she was disappointed and sad herself, from her voice during the runner-up interview with Sue Barker on court during the trophy ceremony. But indeed, Garbine Muguruza deserved to win today! She played an amazing aggressive tennis and it paid off at Wimbledon. Thus, she won her second grandslam title and became the first player, ever, to have beaten both Serena and Venus Williams in grandslam finals. Her first grandslam title was the French Open last year where she beat Serena, in a match which I also watched in person 😣. Though to be honest, I like Garbine Muguruza. But obviously at this time, I still like both Venus and Serena Williams “better” 😛 .

Garbine Muguruza won Wimbledon 2017.

Venus Williams and her runner-up trophy.

The next match that followed was the men’s doubles final between Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo, the fourth seed, versus Mate Pavic and Oliver Marach, the sixteenth seed. Kubot and Melo had been playing especially well this year. And with their victory over Henri Kontinen and John Peers, the first seed, in the semifinals, Marcelo Melo would take the world no.1 position from Henri Kontinen in the following week.

Anyway, I stayed during the first set of the match, which went toe to toe but in the end, Pavic/Marach got the important break from Kubot/Melo in the twelfth game, and won it 7–5. I decided to stretch my legs after the first set and left my seat. I went around the ground where at the time, some other events were also being held, namely the legends events and the wheelchair events.

It was around 6 PM already so I decided to have dinner. I got the sizzling pheri-pheri chicken where I exchanged the bread for extra salad, haha. This dish turned out to be really delicious, btw, and I actually preferred this one than the southern fried chicken I had earlier! Haha 😆 .

Sizzling pheri-pheri chicken with lots of salad!

I went back to my seat and at the time, Kubot/Melo had won the second and third set 7–5, 7–6, respectively. However, they were down a break in the fourth set already. Pavic/Marach took the fourth set 6–3, meaning the match officially went to the decider fifth set. Both teams held their nerves really well during the decider. Kubot/Melo had the slight advantage of serving first, and so that Pavic/Marach had to face the pressure of serving to keep the match alive for a few times. This pressure almost got to them were Kubot/Melo had a few break points and even championships points; but Pavic/Marach were able to save them all.

An exciting men’s doubles final this year between Lukasz Kubot/Marcello Melo (in the closer side of the court) versus Mate Pavic/Oliver Marach (in the farther side of the court).

The match went toe to toe in the decider, and finally hitting 8*–9 score just after 8 PM. For whatever reason, I felt really tired already (I think Venus’ loss took some energy out of me 😛 ). I felt like I already had my ticket money worth anyway, even though the final ladies’ doubles match was still scheduled following the men’s doubles final. And so I decided to leave the venue.

I walked back to Southfields station and then took the Tube to Victoria. I checked-in at my hotel in the area and got into my room. I checked the score, and it turned out after more than 4.5 hours, Kubot/Marach finally won the fifth set 13–11, haha. The ladies’ final followed afterwards. The match turned out to be the complete opposite where the second seed, Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina, double-bagelled (won 6–0, 6–0) the ninth seed, Chan Hao-Ching/Monica Niculescu.

Marcelo Melo’s return to world no.1 was made even sweeter with a Wimbledon title.

As my Instagram followers (@azilko) have known now, I went to … Wimbledon in London this weekend!! Yeay!! 😎

This trip was extremely impulsive because I just started to prepare for everything literally on Friday morning. I used the same strategy as two years ago when I went on a similar trip to watch Serena Williams completed the second Serena Slam. I was super, super lucky to get a last-minute official ticket for the ladies’ final this year .

Back at Wimbledon Centre Court this year.

I already toyed with the idea of this spontaneous trip since I was applying for a UK visa this May actually. I told myself that if Venus Williams made the final, no matter what I would go (provided that I got the ticket, of course). I mean, this would certainly a once in a lifetime opportunity (Serena Williams did not play Wimbledon this year because of her pregnancy). I already checked everything (how to get there, accommodation, etc) and I knew this would be a costly trip given the last-minute nature. But it was worth the attempt if it was for a possibility to see Venus Williams contesting for a singles grandslam title!! I knew I must try to grab this if I was presented the chance!!

Venus Williams started the match with an ace.

And then on Tuesday, Venus Williams won her quarterfinals match against the reigning French Open champion, Jelena Ostapenko (coincidentally, that day I also posted the Roland Garros part of my 2017 Early Summer Weekend TripS series where I watched Jelena Ostapenko won that title 😛 ). So suddenly, it appeared to me that I might actually need to execute this plan! Haha 😆

The ladies’ singles draw of Wimbedon 2017, after the semifinals. Venus Williams was playing really, really well. Source: Wikipedia

I tried to get the ticket on Thursday but unfortunately I was unsuccessful. However, I still had a second chance which was the last official sales on Friday morning. This time, luckily I got one!! This was actually the better scenario in the sense that I already knew Venus Williams would play Garbine Muguruza on Saturday by this time. Had I bought the ticket on Thursday, it would have been a gamble because the semifinals still had not yet been played at that point, haha. It is quite funny, though, that two years ago I bought the ticket after knowing Serena Williams would play Garbine Muguruza. So is Muguruza my lucky charm? Hmm. Anyway, after getting the ticket, I quickly arranged everything else (how to get there and back, accommodation, etc). And in the evening, I left for London! This was also good as it meant I would end my flight-free streak a little bit sooner, haha 😛 .

Come on, Venus!! We all know you CAN do it!!

Obviously, this was a super fun last-minute weekend trip. As you (might) know, Garbine Muguruza ended up winning the title. As a fan, I cannot say that I did not feel sad with Venus’ loss, especially I was present there witnessing it. It was the classic mental match where one point determined the fate for the rest of the match. The point was 4*-5 (15-40) on Muguruza’s serve in the first set. Nonetheless, I still had fun in the tournament, as I love Wimbledon!! And adding that I finally got to see a Venus Williams’ official singles match (an exhibition match against Kim Clijsters in 2012 doesn’t count 😛 ), despite the outcome was not ideal to me, made it even better! I hope Venus will bounce back from this loss, as she has been showing great tennis form this year.

This is all I have for now. As usual, here are some teasers from the trip:

Oh wow it is the end of June already! The start of the month felt like just yesterday but of course it wasn’t and, as usual, time flew by really fast.

Overall June has been a good month for me here. First of all, the Dutch weather turned out to be, in general, surprisingly great, haha 😆 . My work was also fine and I actually felt quite satisfied about it. My office also organized some really fun events during the month. More on this on a latter post, though. I also did quite some travels, two trips to be precise. But both of them took place in the first half of the month. To even things out, I took it slowly and just stayed in Amsterdam in its second half, haha.

Anyway, to make it a full circle (sort of), if I started June by being excited about the French Open (well, the tournament actually started a week before that, haha 😛 ), now I am ending June by being excited about Wimbledon! This week the qualifying stage takes place with the main events starting next week. I always love this time of the year in tennis season. For whatever reasons, seeing a green grass tennis court on TV with a match being played on it makes me really happy!

The main theme of my weekend was definitely the final stage of this year’s Wimbledon, the third grandslam tournament of the year, haha 😆 .

This Wimbledon was great for my favorites. While it was not surprising at all that Serena Williams went deep in the tournament, I was very happy that Venus Williams also reached the semifinal stage! It was her first grandslam semifinal appearance since US Open 2010, and first in Wimbledon since Wimbledon 2009! So for this reason I had a mixed feeling after the semifinal stage: Serena advanced to the final while Venus was stopped by Angelique Kerber. Obviously I was sad that there would be no all-Williams final this year. On the other hand, I knew I would have felt a really huge and deep regret had both Williams reached the final because I would have not been able to go to London and watch the match live because I did not have a valid UK visa! Haha 😆 . I was thinking of applying for one a few months ago but I ended up not doing that. #Indonesianpassportholdersproblem

I wish I was in Wimbledon this year!! This was from last year

Anyway, here is the plot: Prior to Wimbledon, Serena had reached the finals of the two other grandslams this year. However, the results were untypical: she lost both. To Kerber in Australia and to Garbiñe Muguruza in France (a match which I actually witnessed with my own eyes 😦 ). So while she was still the favorite coming to this final, a bigger question mark had formed.

Serena and Kerber played a great ladies singles final where both players pretty much went toe to toe. Kerber, especially, was very impressive with her defensive skill where she was able to handle the barrage of Serena’s attack. This was one of the main reasons how she beat Serena in Australia, though. However, Serena was ready for it this time and was in a very solid mental state. Kerber showed glimpse of lapse of concentration in both sets, which cost her the match. Serena won 7–5, 6–3. Finally, she won her 22nd grandslam singles title and, thus, tying the open-era record set by Steffi Graf in 1999. This released huge amount of pressure from herself, and I love her reaction after the victory:

Yess!! 22 Baby!!

Meanwhile in the ladies doubles draw’, the Williams sisters, ranked 251st in the world (due to inactivity), also made the final. Later on that evening, they beat the fifth seed Timea Babos and Yaroslava Shvedova 6–3, 6–4 to win their sixth Wimbledon doubles title!!

So, yeah, all in all I am very happy with the outcome but I still feel just a little bit sad for not being able to witness that day myself 😛 . I mean, my last-minute visit to Wimbledon last year was amazing so I imagine that had I been able to come to London this year, it would probably have been even more amazing!! But well…

Serena and Venus Williams won the ladies doubles title in 2016. Their first grandslam doubles title since Wimbledon 2012! Photo credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images Europe

In the men’s singles draw, Novak Djokovic surprisingly fell in the third round, suddenly making Andy Murray, my favorite male tennis player now, the big favorite to win the title. Funnily, though, Murray’s plot this year was very similar with Serena’s. Murray reached the final in Australia and France where he lost both to Djokovic (in Paris, I also witnessed this match myself 😦 ).

Murray reached the final where he faced Milos Raonic on Sunday. It was Murray’s 11 grandslam finals and for the first time ever, he did not have to face either Djokovic or Roger Federer. In the end, Murray won in straight sets to win his second Wimbledon and third grandslam title overall!!

Yeah, this weekend was a good weekend for my favorite!! 😀 Collectively, this result is the best one (to me) since the US Open 2012! haha 😛 .

Right after arriving at Liverpool Street Station, I took the tube to go to Wimbledon. Here is a useful information: even though there was a tube station called “Wimbledon”, the closest station to the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), the venue of the tournament, was actually “Southfield”. This year though, there was no way you were not getting this information in Southfield because the station looked like this, haha:

There was no way one did not associate this with Wimbledon

From Southfield, I decided to walk to AELTC. It was a nice 20 minute walk to the gate btw. I had to wait for about half an hour at the gate before they opened it at 10:30 AM. When they did, they checked my ID and my credit card which I used to purchase the ticket in exchange for my ticket.

I entered the ground, and well, my first feeling was: “Finally I am back at Wimbledon!” Seriously, I did not think I would visit Wimbledon this year but thanks to some very nice luck I did!

Back in Wimbledon this year!!

The famous Henman Hill

Anyway, I walked around the ground for a few hours (seriously, lol 😆 ) and at one point I saw Serena Williams warming up at Court No.5! 😯 So I joined the flock of people to see her up close. She was already at the end of her session when I was there so she was already practicing some return and serve. I could see that she did not serve well during the warm up though; so she was serving a lot. And a lady behind me was like: “Gosh, how can she not be tired after hitting all those serves non-stop?” (Serena did practice serving for about ten minutes non-stop).

Btw, if you ask me if I asked for a selfie with Serena; well, I didn’t. Okay, actually, I couldn’t. Because after she finished warming-up, here is how she got off the court:

Escorting Serena Williams out of the practice court

Yes, she was escorted by literally TEN bodyguards! 😯 However, I did get the opportunity to take a selfie with her coach though, Patrick Mouratoglou:

A selfie with Patrick Mouratoglou!!

Yay! 😀

The Matches

As I got a Centre Court ticket, the first match would start at 2 PM with the following schedule:

No doubt, this was the match of the day in term of prestige and what was at stake. If Serena won this match, she would win a second “Serena Slam”. And especially being a fan of Serena, this was also a big match for me, haha 🙂 .

Serena started slow today, hitting three double faults in the first game alone to get broken. On the other hand, this let Garbine to dictate more of the points so she was leading 4–2. This trailing drama in the first set immediately made me feel involved in the match, even though deep down I believed Serena was going to fight back. And she did. She fought so hard, got the broke back, brought the match back to level, and took another punch to win the first set 6–4.

Serena was so pumped up after winning the first set

She carried on this momentum onto the start of the second set. She was serving very well and hit her shots very well. As a result, Serena immediately led 5–1 in the second. But then, the same drama reappeared where Serena got nervous and allowed Garbine to, again, play aggressive. Garbine was able to bring the score to 5–4 but then Serena, being the champion that she was, took the final punch and won the second set, thus the match, thus the championships, thus the Serena Slam, 6–4, 6–4!!

Sinking the victory moment in

A BBC interview with Sue Barker

Yesss!!!

It was such an honor and historical moment for me to witness that. To witness with my own eyes the realization of Serena Slam 2.0, at the Centre Court of the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world: Wimbledon!!

So here is the thing: this would be the second time this year I watched these two teams clashed in a final, with the first being in February in the final of the Rotterdam Open in Rotterdam. That time, Rojer/Tecau won in a super-tiebreak.

Jamie Murray/John Peers

But obviously the stake was very different this time because this was a grandslam final where the winner would win their first grandslam men’s doubles title. And this was in London so the team of Jamie Murray (Andy Murray’s older brother btw) would get more support from the crowd as well. As for me, I liked both teams but of course I was leaning more towards Jean-Julien Rojer because he was Dutch, haha.

I watched the first set which went very tight where both teams held their serve so they had to play a tiebreak. Rojer/Tecau won the tiebreak 7–5. I left during the second set and first half of the third because I was craving for dinner and needed to stretch my legs a little bit. But when I came back, it was just in time to witness the Dutch/Romanian team won the match 7–6(5), 6–4, 6–4!!

This should be a very entertaining match, on paper, because these two teams were the top two seeds of the tournament. Martina Hingis decided to come back to the tour a couple of years ago and focused on doubles. Well, she has always been a good doubles player and she has a very great touch with her racket. So it was nice that I could see her play live!

Also, just to make it more fun, I am going to refer Elena Vesnina as “Ayah” here because her grunt sounded like this:

Haha 😆 . To me it sounded like “Ayah” and it means “father” in Indonesian btw, haha 😆

Makarova/Ayah took the first set 7–5

And wow, this match turned out to be the tightest and most exciting match of the day! Both teams played really well and the score line indicated this! After trading break in the first two games, both teams held their serve. But Makarova/Ayah were able to break Hingis’ serve and won the first set 7–5.

The second set went just as tight and a tiebreak had to be played. This time, the first seed fought back and won it 7–4. In the third set, Hingis/Mirza were immediately down one break and both looked lost. And to be honest, I thought they were done at this point. But then, Mirza was peaking with her shots and did not miss 😆 . They brought the match back to level. At 5-all, the organizers thought it was already too dark for play (it was 9 PM already) so they decided to put the roof on to make Centre Court an indoor grass court with lighting 🙂 .

The roof of Centre Court being closed

My experience was complete now because in my first time watching tennis in Centre Court, they were actually USING the roof! Super cool!

Anyway, the roof needed 10 minutes to close hence in the meantime the play was suspended. Both teams returned to the court some 15 minutes later and continued their match. Hingis/Mirza were on at this point. They broke Makarova/Ayah’s serve right away and held their own serve in the next game. Hence, they won the match 5–7, 7–6(4), 7–5 for their first grandslam title together!

Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza won the very tight final match for the title!

The Food

Strawberries and Cream

First of all, in Wimbledon, obviously I MUST have a bowl of strawberries and cream. Wimbledon is full of tradition so I also comply! Lol 😆

A trip to Wimbledon is never complete without strawberries and cream

Fish and Chips

Also, while in London, I decided to have fish and chips for brunch, haha. However, this time I felt like the fish was smaller than it was two years ago though. But I could not finish it two years ago because it was too big, so I was okay with this. But then, it turned out that I also could not finish it this time for the same reason, lol 😆 .

Southern Fried Chicken

Southern fried chicken, my favorite dish at Wimbledon

It is official now. My favorite dish in Wimbledon was the southern Fried Chicken whose stall was underneath Court No.1 just accross the Henman Hill. It was basically crispy battered fried chicken (I would guess they mix the flour with a lot of black pepper, which gave it the spicy taste which I liked) with thin chips. So tasty!!

About a week and a half ago, I went on a weekend trip to London to watch this year’s Wimbledon final. Just as the story from my weekend trip to Paris for the French Open final this year, I am also splitting this story into two posts. This post is the first one where I cover the non-Wimbledon related stuffs from the trip 🙂

So, here we go…

***

Actually, practically all of my time in London was spent for Wimbledon in this trip, haha. I arrived in London on Saturday morning, went straight to Wimbledon, left the venue at around 9:30 PM, went straight to my hostel, slept, got up, walked to Waterloo station to catch my bus to Gatwick, then flew back to the Netherlands, haha. Therefore, this post will basically just cover the travelling story to/from London 😛

Getting to London

Ferry to Harwich

I took the trains to go to Hoek van Holland Haven, where the ferry accross the Channel would depart. I arrived there at around 20:35, checked-in, passed the immigration desk, and boarded the ship, Stena Britannica. Btw, Stena Britannica was such a huge ship:

Boarding Stena Britannica

She had three decks of passengers cabins, one deck for the common area with restaurants, bars, cafes, internet room, a cinema, etc, and a few more decks for the vehicles (with cars and trucks being the most common vehicles). Because I took the overnight service, I must also book a cabin on top of my ferry ticket. If the last time I booked a fancier cabin with window, this time I decided to book the cheapest one with no window, haha 😛 .

Because the departure time was at 22:00, I already had my dinner before leaving. So on board I did not buy any dinner and just sat at the bar having a drink, haha. This time, I feel like there were more people travelling with the ferry though in comparison to my last trip. It probably made sense because now it was in the Summer while my previous trip was in the cold month of February, haha. Also because it was summer, I could still enjoy the view outside after the ferry departed at 22:00. It was quite nice.

Off to the sea!!!

Anyway because the purpose of my ferry ride was to get a good night sleep before the big day, I went to bed not so long after. I had quite a nice sleep, getting up at 04:45 (UK time). I took a shower, had breakfast (more on this later in the post), and packed my stuffs. Btw, even though they opened the gate at around 06:30, the ship had actually docked at Harwich Port at around 04:30 though. I knew this because the ship made this annoying noise while docking to the pier (but it was actually a good wakeup call now that I think about it), haha. This time the passengers walkway in Harwich was still being renovated, they took us (passengers who travelled on foot) with bus from the carpark deck to the immigration building. It was kinda cool.

Harwich to London

Long story short I passed the immigration check and my train to London departed at 07:33 from Harwich Station. I had to transfer once in Manningtree, but overall it was quite an uneventful train ride. I arrived at London Liverpool Street station at around 08:55. Oh, I could charge my phone on the train too btw, quite cool!

Reserved seat for me on the train from Maningtree to London Liverpool Street

From there, I took the tube directly to Wimbledon. Story about Wimbledon will come in the Part II post.

Back from London

I decided to take Garuda Indonesia’s fifth freedom flight, again, to go back to the Netherlands. So in the morning I had to get up quite early (at 06:30) to get to London Gatwick. I stayed in a hostel near Borough tube station in London while my easyBus coach to Gatwick would depart from Waterloo Station. Because it did not look that far in the map, this morning I decided that I wanted to walk to Waterloo, haha.

Another mocha coffee at Waterloo

Getting to Waterloo Station on foot from my hostel was quite straightforward. I had a quick breakfast and coffee at the station before going to the stop where the coach would leave. This morning I got a very nice and friendly driver (the other time I got a pouty and borderline rude driver who pissed another passenger off (I could see the lady was so upset about it, and her husband tried to comfort her)). Anyway, we departed on time at 08:40 and about one hour later we arrived at Gatwick.

I checked in at Garuda’s desk at Gatwick. If my previous two Amsterdam – London vv flights with Garuda were about 70% full in economy, this time the flight was almost full. The load factor was at least 95% I estimate. But this resulted in me not getting an available window seat. Daaamn! 😦 So the check-in lady gave me an aisle seat; still better than the middle seat but I preferred the window seat of course, haha.

Still on time on the screen though

I knew the flight was going to get delayed (I checked the progress of the GA88 flight from Jakarta at Flightradar24) because of late departure from Jakarta. I supposed it had something to do with the eruption of Mount Raung in East Java though which forced five airports (including Ngurah Rai Airport in Bali) to be closed at that time. Anyway, because of this I knew I had some time so I went to a Jamie Oliver’s restaurant at Gatwick to have a proper breakfast, haha. Story about this breakfast is in the next section of this post.

After breakfast, I killed some more spare time at a convenience store reading some magazines about aviation and tennis, haha. At 12:10, the boarding gate was announced and I walked to the gate, Gate 51. I was lucky that today Garuda deployed a Boeing 777-300ER which I had never flown on before: PK-GID. So my logbook was getting even more complete with this sponatenous trip. Yay! This means that now, I have flown on 4 of Garuda’s 7 Boeing 777-300ERs: PK-GIA (twice), PK-GIC, PK-GID, and PK-GIE. The other three are PK-GIF, PK-GIG, and PK-GIH. However, I don’t think Garuda will deploy PK-GIH on the Amsterdam route because PK-GIH is in a higher density seating.

A Garuda Indonesia’s Boeing 777-300ER reg PK-GID

Anyway, at 12:40, the boarding announcement was made and I boarded my Garuda Indonesia’s GA89 flight to Amsterdam with PK-GID. We took off from runway 26L of Gatwick Airport. It was a routine flight but the weather was not quite the best. The seatbet sign was on longer than normal during take-off as we had to manauver around the thick cloud surrounding London. The service was pretty much the same as my previous London-Amsterdam flight with GA89 so I won’t get to too much details here. Except that the flight attendant looked even much busier due to the heavier load 🙂 .

The FAs were busy on this flight. A 39 minutes flight with almost full economy class on a Boeing 777-300ER: BUSY!

At 15:25, we landed at runway 18R of Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. As I was sitting on an aisle seat this time, I could not make any landing video 😦 . Then everything that followed was just a routine stuffs. We parked at Gate G03, disembarked the plane, passed the immigration desk, then took the train back to Delft.

Btw here is the actual route today:

The actual flight path of flight GA 89 today. Source: flightaware.nl

The Food

English Breakfast On Board The Ferry

I decided to buy the English breakfast package on board the ferry when I booked the ferry ticket (so I would get a 20% discount 😛 ) for two reasons: (1) I always think a proper breakfast is super important to start a long day and (2) I LOVE English breakfast!!

It was a buffet breakfast though so of course the quality of the food was just okay. It was good, but definitely not spectacular. But I still liked it anyway.

Buffet English breakfast!!

Brunch at Jamie’s Italian

At Gatwick Airport, as I had the time, I decided to stop by at Jamie’s Italian there to have brunch. It was still around 10 AM so they only had their breakfast menu. I did not go with the butties this time though, lol 😆 , but went for a more substantial one: Steak ‘N’ Eggs. And it was good.

At 11 AM, they started serving their normal menu so, as I still had some time, I ordered a bowl of polenta chips! After finishing it I was SOO full though, haha 😆

The bow of Stena Britannica

Deck 10 of Stena Britannica with the cabins

My cabin

You can play basketball if you want

Busy Port of Rotterdam

A beer and the bar area

A lot of passengers today

Port of Rotterdam

The bow of Stena Britannica as we were crossing the Channel

The stairs connecting Deck 9, 10, and 11

An English landscape

Train to London at Manningtree

On board the train to London

Hello again, London!!

Steak ‘N’ Egg for brunch

Polenta Chips

Busy boarding gate

EasyJet’s new livery on a new Airbus A320-200

Boarding PK-GID

The aisle of PK-GID

A Boeing 777-300ER is equipped with ten emergency doors

Complimentary warm snack and drink on board GA89 from London to Amsterdam.

My Instagram followers (@azilko) would have known by now that this weekend I went to London to watch the final of the 2015 Wimbledon Championships. Yes, I was back in London just four weeks after my previous weekend trip to London in June, haha 😆 . I will not get to the story of this trip just yet with this post though, so stay tuned for that one. Instead, this post is more about the background behind this trip 🙂 .

If I called my previous weekend trip to London impromptu because I made the arrangement about one week before departing, then this trip was extremely impromptu. I departed on Friday evening (with a ferry ride, just like what I did last year 🙂 ) and I made the decision to go just on Friday morning!! 😯 Seriously!!

How so??

So, you know a Wimbledon ticket is the most extremely difficult ticket to get of all tennis tournaments in the world. And just on Friday morning, I was extremely lucky that I got a ticket for the Saturday’s event with the main event of the ladies’ singles final! And to make it even sweeter, by this time, I already knew who were going to play because the semifinals matches were held on Thursday. I knew I was going to watch: [1] Serena Williams vs [20] Garbiñe Muguruza. And you know I am a big fan of Serena Williams. On top of that, Serena was chasing history where if she won this match, she would win the “Serena Slam” (winning four consecutive grandslams but not in the same calendar year). So it was a super historic match and I got the opportunity to witness it live!! So without a doubt I decided to take it.

I would be lying if I had not, at least, given a thought about this trip before Friday. I mean, aside from the ticket, being in the Netherlands, I also had to consider the trip’s accommodation matter, like how to get there and back, where I would stay, etc. I mean, there was a budget constraint for me as well.

And for this, I found an optimal solution. As the match would be on Saturday morning, I would take the overnight ferry from Hoek van Holland in Rotterdam on Friday evening and I should arrive in London Saturday morning. This meant I only needed to stay one night in London (which I was able to find a cheap hostel room (for London standard)). It was also good because it meant I could work normally on Friday, haha. To go back to the Netherlands, I was able to found a promotion fare by Garuda Indonesia on Sunday. See, it was good!

Yeah, it was such a spontaneous weekend for me!! 🙂

As usual, here are a few teasers from the trip:

Taking the ferry to cross the channel

Back in Wimbledon this year!!

Henman Hill

Serena Williams completed the second Serena Slam

Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau won!

Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza won the very tight final match for the title!